Belle - Lesley Pearse [30]
There was a clatter of feet on stone steps and a young, freckled-faced, red-haired lad came bursting into the bar. His trousers were wet below the knees, as if he’d been washing down a floor.
‘Have you found her?’ he asked breathlessly.
Noah shook his head. He realized the lad thought he was a plainclothes policeman.
Jimmy’s face fell. ‘Have you got proof yet that she was kidnapped then?’
‘What makes you think she might have been kidnapped?’ Noah asked.
Jimmy stared at Noah for a moment or two. His expression had become wary as if he was afraid he’d said the wrong thing. ‘You tell me who you are first,’ he said.
Noah walked over to a table by the fire. ‘Will you come and sit down with me?’
Jimmy did, but sat on the edge of the seat as if poised for flight. The hunchback went back outside.
Noah explained that he wasn’t police, but a friend of Millie’s, and that Miss Davis had called on him to ask for help. ‘I agreed to because I really liked Millie,’ he said. ‘I’m hoping you’ll help me because you like Belle. Anything you can tell me will just be between us.’
Jimmy’s sharp, suspicious expression vanished, replaced by eagerness. ‘I heard that Annie and her maid were out yesterday about half past five asking everyone if they’d seen Belle. I wanted to go and help them but my uncle – he’s the landlord of this place – said Annie would eat me alive if she knew Belle had been talking to me,’ he rattled out quick-fire. ‘Later that evening Uncle told me he’d seen Belle outside the pawn shop opposite here at about four o’clock. He thought that meant Belle might have been pawning something to run away.’
‘Why didn’t he go and tell Annie that?’ Noah asked.
‘Well, I’m glad he didn’t, ’cos I knew she was there waiting for me and everyone would’ve been mad about that. But I weren’t here at the time, I’d been sent up to King’s Cross to take a message to someone.’
‘So why do you think she was kidnapped rather than just running away?’
‘Because of what she told me after Millie was killed.’
‘What was that?’
‘She made me promise not to tell.’
Noah liked that the boy was honest and loyal. ‘I think she told you what Miss Davis told me too, about seeing the murder,’ Noah said. ‘If I’m right, you must tell me what you know because the man who killed Millie is almost certainly responsible for Belle’s disappearance.’
‘Do you think he might kill her too?’ Jimmy asked fearfully.
Noah nodded. ‘I won’t lie to you. I think that’s more than likely. He could hang with what she witnessed. Desperate men do desperate things.’
Jimmy blanched, but quickly revealed everything Belle had told him. ‘We have to save her,’ he said breathlessly as he finished. ‘Have you got any idea where she might have been taken?’
‘None,’ Noah admitted. ‘I was hoping you and your uncle might have some ideas. Where would your uncle stand on this? Would he want to help find Belle?’
‘Why don’t you ask me yourself?’ a deep voice rang out behind them.
Noah turned on his seat to see the landlord standing there, and his stomach turned over, for the man looked the kind who could twist someone’s head off his shoulders just for looking at him the wrong way. He was big, six foot at least, with massive shoulders and arms like a prize fighter’s. Noah guessed he was somewhere around his mid- to late thirties, with a thick, dark red beard, and a high colour as if he drank a great deal.
‘I’m sorry, sir.’ Noah leapt to his feet and held out his hand. ‘My name is Bayliss, I was a friend of Millie’s. Now I’ve been asked to help find Belle Cooper, and as I was told your nephew was her friend I came here to see if he could tell me anything more.’
‘More than what?’ Garth asked sneeringly.
‘More than that she just disappeared while her mother was at Millie’s funeral! I was also hoping you’d come in on our side too, sir.’
‘A pub landlord has to remain impartial,’ Garth said curtly.
‘Of course,’ Noah agreed. ‘But let me tell you the whole story, as Miss Davis told it to me. If you don’t wish to help after that I’ll go about my business.’
Garth remained standing